Generosity is an important word in our community. It’s our hope that we look at the decisions we make through the lens of generosity.

After watching a video in our small group, I’ve been thinking about what generosity actually means to us in the day-to-day. How do we actually do it, live it, breathe it?

As I sit this morning and think about some of the ways I’ve experienced generosity in this community and in others, this is some of what the word means to me.

Generosity is elbow room around the table. It’s never running out of wine, hot chocolate, or sausages. It means having space for one more.

It looks like hot food arriving at the door for weeks after a new arrival or more hands than you could possibly need to load the van. It’s the Lucozade and snack packages arriving when you’re ill and tucked up in bed.

Generosity is cold hard cash through the letter box. It’s someone choosing to tell you what they really think or borrowing a DVD boxset.

Generosity means calling out your excuses. It’s playing the same game with your children one more time. Generosity means expecting more from you.

Generosity is going to a friends for dinner and not taking anything but yourself.

It’s a MacDonald’s drop off at the delivery room, or a bed for the night or the holiday you wouldn’t be able to afford.

Generosity is excessive. It’s more than we need to get by. It stands out. It’s necessarily more than most of us have any right to expect.

Generosity is not a transaction. It’s not this for that. It’s not because we owe or because we are owed.